Tuesday, 28 December 2010

In this scene we see two smartly dressed men walking through the airport lobby. They purposely collide with each other and drop their bags as it happens. They make direct eye contact for a second or so and the slyly pick up each other bag.

- What makes it suspenseful? -

Suspense is created in a variety of way. The way that the sound of his footsteps are hightened and the way is the camera lens blurs everyone out except for the two main men in this scene, this starts the tension.

The antagonist of the film seems to be walking at a slower pace than the other man in a suit which kind of shows whos more important in that section of the film.

As the two men bump into each other after the brief moment when the two men bump into each other and drop thier bags and they apologise the two men look at each other for a second or son and it makes us wonder what may happen between the two but they just pick up the bags and walk on.

- What happens in the scene? -

In this scene the cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) was tied down to his steering wheel as he was held captive.while shouting for help he draws attention to himself as a group of armed robbers try to rob him in the alleyway. Vincent (Tom Cruise) appears in the nick of time as the men are walking away with his briefcase. When they pull out a gun he raises his hands and and appears to of been in trouble but pulls out his gun and kills all the men and retrieves his briefcase.

- What makes it suspenseful? -

What makes it suspenseful is for the lighting of the scene, it was dark and set in an alleyway, this scenario connotes danger and death. Max then trys to get attention. We as the audience believe he has been rescued and now have a moment of relief: But it turns out the men who seemed to be heroes turned out to be the antagonist of the scene.

They take Vincents briefcase from the back seat and walk off leaving us wondering whats going to happen to the files and whats in it. We get a sigh of relief as we see Max does not get injured but Vincent has other ideas and decides to confront them un-armed. we are worried as Vincent does not know they are armed. There is a build of suspense as Vincent steps up because he may get shot, but in the midst of the suspense we fail to see remember that Vincent is a trained assassin as has the ability to kill them and to no suprise the tension is relieved as his abilities with a gun leads to the death of both the me as he retrieves his gun.

- What happens in the scene? -

This is one of the final scenes of the movie and in this scene we see Max and Vincent left in engaged in a shootout on a train carriage to the death.The two men shoot until their ammo runs out. As they both run out Vincent draws for another round but as he tries he stops mid-drift and to our suprise he got shot by Max and admits defeat by sitting down on the seat.After a short conversation Vincent dies Max and his female companion get of the leaving Vincent's dead body sitting on the train and we watch the train set off into the dawn.

- What makes it suspenseful? -

Probably one of the most suspenseful scenes. While Max and Vincent are firing the lights are out and all that can be seen is the flash as bullets are shot. The train goes into a tunnel as the shot being and the as that can be seen is the light from the shots being fired and they the darkness hides any trace of where the bullets are heading and once the firing stops there is the tense moment when you don't know where the bullets ended up who had been hit which was very tense. Vincent draws for another round but stops for a split second and the supsense is slowly cut out as when notice that Vincent had been shot and admits defeat. There is still a bit of tension due to the silence and the fact that Vincent sits down. Max and the girl (Jada Pinkett-Smith) slowly walk towards him adding more tension and once loosen up their posture you realise that it is finally over.

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Suspense is when there is a build up of feelings that cause uncertainty and tension. This is normally caused by certain actions, normally when watching thrillers. Suspense is commonly used in thrillers, as it creates a mental state on curiosity and anxiousness. This causes them to feel strain as they sit on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen. Suspense will normally operate in a situation where there is a lead up towards a big scene or event so it gives a very tension wondering feeling to create a sense emotion and excitement towards the scene.

However Alfred Hitchcock describes the difference between suspense and mystery as they can seem the same thing. Mystery is a clever process where the audience will want to know what happens next a wondering feeling. However suspense is an emotional process.

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

There are quite a few factors used in order to create suspense in a thriller. Jaws has my favourite element of suspense.
The slow build up of the shark emerging from the water creates suspense and tension as the viewers are practically glued to the seats as they want to see whats to come.
There is a sense of security created by production crew as we believe the worst has passed but the suspense is immedietly brought back and catches the viewer off guard.
This promotes a physical reaction from the viewers and raises not of the emotions of the audience but also the heart-rate

Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or unrest of the outcome of an event or action which is to happen in the nearby future. This oftens is often referred to in cinematic/dramatic work; used usually while watching thrillers or horror. It is usually used in thrillers as a way of adding suspense and curiousity to the viewers state of mind. Directors and producers used this as a way to cause strain and unrest to the viewer as they sit in their seat wondering where the current events would lead to. Suspense is usually used to lead up to a big/important scene which increases excitement.

Alfred Hitchcock was a huge user of supsense and often described it as adding mystery to the affairs in the film. Although adding suspense seems like a simple process it, varies on the age group and audience.

Definition of suspense: Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety, suspense is used to help build a climax and help reach a dramatic moment, with tension being the emotion the audience experiences at the time. Suspense is also the higher knowledge of the audience, than the lack of knowledge of the characters in the film, this rises tension as this creates anticipation and uncertainty. Alfred Hitchcock is known as the father of suspense, his famous films like "psycho" influenced many directors till this very day on how they build suspense and get the tension across effectively

The film "Jaws" allows suspense to build up with a slow paced editing and the sound of children's laughter which connotes safety and innocence, the film also conveys a false sense of security to build up tension.

This thriller sub genre falls under, physiological thriller, this clip interests me and grabs my attention because the film starts of with something so simple but very artistic, the Mise en scene in this scene starts of with a photo being taken, whilst the camera is set on a "close up" towards the photo, this allowed me to already know that the theme of photo / memory is a theme that will be followed out. Within the clip, it all starts to rewind, this editing style is recognised to convey the loss of memory or a flash back, the editing style already leaves the audience in a situation where we are already questioning what is going on, and why is it rewinding, this techqniue grabs the audiences attention straight away, and this allows the complex story line to begin.

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. In broader definitions of suspense, this emotion arises when someone is aware of his lack of knowledge about the development of a meaningful event; thus, suspense is a combination of anticipation and uncertainty dealing with the obscurity of the future. In terms of narrative expectations, it may be contrasted with mystery or curiosity and surprise .